The government yesterday abolished the professional watchdog for teachers in England, the General Teaching Council for England, prompting claims the move risked undermining the public's trust in the teaching profession's ability to regulate itself.

Michael Gove, the education secretary, told the House of Commons he was "deeply sceptical" of the quango's purpose and believed it "did little to raise teaching standards or professionalism".

He said the council took more than £36 each year from each teacher and "hardly gave them anything back".

Keith Bartley, the council's chief executive, criticised Gove for announcing the abolition of his organisation without informing its chair. Just before the news was confirmed, Bartley told the Guardian: "It would be discourteous in the extreme of him to make a decision to abolish a public body without telling the chair. The chair has not received that information."

Bartley added that were the council to be abolished the government "will lose independent, well-researched evidence and advice which they badly need".

He said: "What is at risk is the teaching profession's ability to demonstrate to the public its capacity to regulate itself and to run the most comprehensive register of teachers to show that they are fit and licensed to practice."

The quango, set up in 1998, maintains a register of more than 550,000 qualified teachers. State school teachers have had to register with it under law. It also convenes panels to discipline teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence and provides advice to ministers on the quality of teaching and learning.

Gove criticised the decision by a council panel last week to clear a teacher of racial and religious intolerance who posted comments on the internet describing some immigrants as "savage animals" and "filth".

Adam Walker, a British National party activist, used a school laptop to claim in an online forum that Britain was a "dumping ground for the filth of the third world". Walker was a technology teacher at Houghton Kepier sports college in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, at the time. He is the first teacher to be brought before the watchdog accused of racial intolerance. He resigned as a teacher in 2007. Gove said the panel's decision was "quite wrong".

Gove said: "Since I have been shadowing education and more recently held the brief in government there has been one organisation of whose purpose and benefit to teachers I am deeply sceptical - the General Teaching Council for England.

"I believe this organisation does little to raise teaching standards or professionalism. Instead it simply acts as a further layer of bureaucracy while taking money away from teachers."

It is not yet known who will take over the council's roles.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said she had "no doubt" the decision would be welcomed by teachers. "I have frequently said that if the GTCE was abolished tomorrow, few would notice and even less would care.

"For years, the NASUWT has been warning the GTCE that it was failing to gain the respect and confidence of the profession or to act appropriately in the public interests."

A statement on the council's website said it was "seeking legal advice" and "urgent clarification from ministers and Department for Education officials".

Teachers pay a £36.50 annual fee to the council, of which £33 is reimbursed by the government, costing taxpayers £16m. Some of that money will have to be redirected to administer the teaching register and run hearings to vet complaints about teachers' competence.

Gove also told MPs that half of all top-rated secondary schools in England had applied to become academies. He said that 299 out of the 600 secondary schools judged outstanding by inspectors had requested to switch status in the past week. A further 327 outstanding schools had applied to become academies; of these 273 are primaries and 52 special schools. Some 2,000 primary schools and 300 special schools are judged outstanding.

Gove has said these top-rated schools would be fast-tracked to become academies as early as September. In the past, it has taken as long as a year for a school to turn into an academy.

Another 488 schools that have not been judged to be outstanding have applied for academy status. This will make them independent from local authorities and give them new freedoms over the curriculum.